New Power Plants for Data Centers Would Significantly Increase Pennsylvania’s Climate Pollution

Data center developers in Pennsylvania plan to rely on at least seven new natural gas-fired power plants that would emit climate-warming gases equal to adding 14 million cars on the road every year, according to a new report.

The report from the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group, said the plants would together emit some 68 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, part of a national trend that would result in a huge rise in greenhouse gas emissions amid global efforts to slow climate change. That bump would mean a 24 percent increase in Pennsylvania’s emissions as of 2022.

The planned power plants, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the United States, are so-called “behind-the-meter” plants that would supply electricity directly to data centers rather than to the grid, where data centers would have to draw energy alongside other users, such as homes and businesses. EIP’s report, titled “The Power Behind AI,” focused on larger power plants capable of generating 100 megawatts or more. The plants planned in Pennsylvania would produce about 14 gigawatts of power combined.

As plans for data centers proliferate across the United States, and affected communities claim the rush toward development will damage the environment and public health, the report is the latest to warn of a national surge in greenhouse gas emissions in response to huge new demand for electricity from the industry. Natural gas-rich Pennsylvania has attracted significant interest from tech companies hoping to build near an abundant fuel supply, even as the state’s legacy of fossil fuel extraction means that some residents are more skeptical of those plans.

“These gas power plants pose serious risks to our climate as well as the health and wellbeing of nearby communities,” the 44-page report said. “Investments in artificial intelligence are driving the construction of a huge wave of data centers and dirty gas power plants across the U.S.”

Aaron Tinjum, vice president of energy at the Data Center Coalition, a trade group, declined to confirm whether the seven Pennsylvania plants would emit 68 million tons of greenhouse gases a year, and did not respond to a question about whether the planned power plants would hurt the health and wellbeing of nearby communities, as the report claims. But he said the industry is making “significant investments” in clean energy and “next generation” technologies.

Data centers accounted for half of the contracted wind and solar capacity in 2024, Tinjum said, quoting research by S&P Global.

“While grid planning and management are ultimately the responsibility of utilities, grid operators, and regulators, the coalition is committed to leaning in as an engaged partner to help promote solutions that advance affordability, reliability, and modern economic growth for all customers,” he said.  

In Pennsylvania, the biggest behind-the-meter power plant studied by the report is the Homer City Generating Station, a former coal-fired plant east of Pittsburgh in Indiana County, which would emit more than 17.5 million tons a year of CO2 equivalent. If fully converted to natural gas, it would create up to 4.7 GW of power, making it one of the biggest generators in the country. As a coal-fired plant, Homer City closed in 2023.

Another plant, at Shippingport in Beaver County, would emit even more greenhouse gases—21.1 million tons a year—although its generating capacity would be less than the Homer City plant, at 3.6 GW, the report said.

Together, the seven Pennsylvania plants would increase the quantity of greenhouse gases by an amount equal to more than doubling the number of cars and trucks on Pennsylvania’s roads, according to Griffin Bird, the report’s lead author.

Pennsylvania’s attractiveness to data center developers is boosted by sitting atop the Marcellus Shale, one of the world’s biggest reserves of natural gas. The state is second only to Texas for gas production in the U.S. 

Nationally, at least 74 gas-fired power plants, nearly all of them new, are planned to fuel the data-center industry, generating 662 million tons of greenhouse gases, equal to the annual emissions of Australia or putting another 140 million cars and trucks on the road, the report said. In aggregate, the plants identified by the study would generate three times as much power as California uses. 

Almost half of the plants covered in the report would be located in Texas. Another 20 would be built in the Ohio River Valley across Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

Both the national and statewide estimates are likely to understate the problem because the survey only covered large behind-the-meter plants, Bird said. Pennsylvania has 66 data center projects that are proposed, approved, under construction or in some form of preliminary activity, according to Data Center Proposal Tracker, an independent website. Some of those may involve behind-the-meter power plants that were not captured by the EIP survey because they generate less than 100 MW, Bird said.

Alex Bomstein, executive director of the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Clean Air Council, said the proposed Homer City plant, if fully built, would be the largest single pollution source in the state.

The fracked gas needed to run the plant would require 250 new wells to be drilled about every five years, increasing the chances of aquifer contamination and the risks to public health, Bomstein said.

“That’s 250 new toxic intrusions into neighborhoods across Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, on and on, for as long as the plant is running,” Bomstein said during a press conference held to launch the EIP report.

He accused the industry and the administration of Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro of promoting data centers in the face of community opposition. Shapiro has said data center developers should provide their own power and be transparent with communities about their plans if they want permitting help from the state.

“What does Indiana County gain from this, and what does America gain?” he asked. “The public hasn’t asked for AI data centers, and the public does not want them. In an era of hyper-partisanship in America, one thing that unites us is opposition to these giant data centers,” Bomstein said.

The report also found that data centers and their dedicated power plants were often proposed in low-income communities where public health and environmental quality is already compromised.

“Adding more air pollutants and particulate matter from these plants could worsen these health disparities,” said EIP’s executive director, Jen Duggan. She said almost 90 percent of the power plants are planned in counties where life expectancy is below the national average.

To lessen the likelihood of unwanted data centers and their power plants, communities should be allowed to approve or deny the plants on their own terms, Duggan said.

If they are built, data centers should be powered by wind or solar energy, backed up with battery storage, and not by natural gas or coal, the report argued. “Gas requires a large fuel price year after year, and eventually the gas runs out, and you have to put in solar anyway. There’s not a limitless supply of gas, even in Pennsylvania,” Bomstein said.

Duggan agreed. “It makes no sense for a technology of the future to be powered by the dirty fossil fuels of the past,” she said.